Research Catalog

Title

Who wrote the Dead Sea scrolls? : the search for the secret of Qumran / Norman Golb.

Author

Golb, Norman

Publication

New York : Scribner, c1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvi, 446 p. : ill., maps; 25 cm.

Summary

The scrolls have been the subject of unending fascination and controversy ever since their discovery in the Qumran caves beginning in 1947. Intensifying the debate, Professor Norman Golb now fundamentally challenges those who argue that the writings belonged to a small, desert-dwelling fringe sect. Instead, he shows why the scrolls must have been the work of many groups in ancient Judaism, kept in libraries in Jerusalem and smuggled out of the capital just before the Romans attacked in A.D. 70. He eloquently portrays the spiritual fervor of the people who lived and wrote in the period between the great writings of the Hebrew Bible and the birth of the New Testament. Golb backs up his ground-breaking interpretation with a careful reading of the texts and the archaeological findings. Bringing to scroll studies a vast knowledge of ancient history, he describes the scrolls' rich diversity of ideas, and offers a new interpretation of their significance for the evolution of both Judaism and Christianity.

Subject

• Dead Sea scrolls > Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Judaism > Sources. > Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D

Genre/Form

• History
• Sources

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-431) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The Qumran Plateau -- The manuscripts of the Jews -- 1947: the first scroll discoveries -- The Qumran-Essene theory: a paradigm reconsidered -- The Copper Scroll, the Masada manuscripts, and the siege of Jerusalem -- Scroll origins: Rengstorf's theory and Edmund Wilson's response -- The Temple Scroll, the Acts of Torah, and the Qumranologists' dilemma -- Power politics and the collapse of the scrolls monopoly -- Myth and science in the world of Qumranology -- The deepening scrolls controversy -- The New York conference and some academic intrigues -- The importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls -- Judaism, Christianity, and the Scrolls.

ISBN

002544395X :

LCCN

^^^94023295^

OCLC

• 31009916
• SCSB-11364957

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library